For Hungarian minorities, no good election choice
Although Péter Magyar can be a better option as a Hungarian Prime Minister for Kyiv, Hungarian minorities do not expect fundamental shifts in human rights if he wins.
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MISKOLC & BUDAPEST, HUNGARY—“I really hope that I will be surprised as hell tomorrow. But yeah, as a Roma, as a queer person, I don’t see any kind of representation either in the Fidesz party or even in the TISZA party,” said Hungarian Norbert Horvath, shaking his head.
In the center of his hometown, Miskolc, it’s impossible to take a step without eyes staring back at you. Every meter here and across Hungary, where elections are being held today, is covered with posters, stickers, and billboards bearing the faces of parliamentary candidates.
For Hungary, these are historic elections. Yet for most Hungarians, including Norbert himself, it is hard to imagine anyone other than Viktor Orbán coming to power.
No one has managed to do that for 16 years.
In the final days before the election, tension and polarization in Hungarian society have reached a peak. The main contenders — current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, and Péter Magyar with his TISZA party — held their final rallies across the country in a last effort to convince voters.
Two days ago more than 100,000 people took to the streets of Budapest for a rally and concert, urging others to vote against the current government. The crowd chanted “Russians go home,” one of the defining slogans of the 1956 revolution, when Hungarians rose up against Soviet occupation. Now the slogan carries a completely new meaning amid reports of the Orbán government’s covert cooperation with Moscow.
Support for TISZA is also reflected in opinion polls, giving many Hungarians hope for a change in power. According to the latest independent surveys, Péter Magyar is significantly ahead of Orbán. Almost 57 percent have already voted today on the elections, suggesting a tremendous mobilisation in the society.
For Hungary’s minorities, a change in government may bring some relief. But it is unlikely to be transformative, as Péter Magyar still aims to preserve the national-conservative country course.
Today’s Hungary is a vivid example of how difficult it can be for proto-authoritarian systems to return to democratic norms, and of how a change in leadership alone is not always enough to produce big change in society.
For Norbert it is difficult to believe that real change will take place in his country. Still, he tries to hold on to hope.
He is one of Hungary’s Roma community — the largest ethnic minority in the country, estimated at around 7–8 percent of the population, or roughly 700,000 to 800,000 people. Despite their quantity, Roma remain one of the most discriminated-against groups there.
Roma in Hungary continue to face segregation in both kindergartens and schools, although Hungary has a legal ban on discrimination in education. They are often placed in separate classes or institutions and follow a lower-level curriculum. At times, they are misdiagnosed as having special educational needs. Because of that many Roma people are disadvantaged from very early on in their lives.
In addition, they frequently encounter barriers to accessing healthcare, housing, employment, and other basic services. Domestic racism against Roma people is also considered a norm and during Orban’s terms those issues secured.
“One month ago…at a drugstore, I was followed by the security guard. I just said to him, ‘John, you can help me and find my perfect foundation. I will not steal, I promise,’” Norbert recalled one of the thousands of situations when people acted according to their stereotypes about Roma people.
Since childhood Norbert had to try twice as hard to get what other Hungarians had: earn better grades, study more diligently. He never learned the history of his own ethnicity simply because it was often omitted in Hungarian schools. And when he was still very young, his family had to lock their doors and gates because of violent attacks on Roma people.
Norbert became the first in his family to graduate from university and receive a well-paid job. Unlike many of his relatives, he did not follow the path of becoming a hairdresser or a mechanic. Instead, he studied Nordic languages and eventually began working for a Norwegian company and as a tour guide in Budapest.
At first, Norbert appreciated not being associated with the stereotypical image of a marginalized Roma person, which later grew into irritation. Many people assumed Roma lived only in constant poverty, stole from shops, and were unkempt. Those stereotypes were sometimes fueled by people close to Orban, as well.
“If someone has to scrub the toilets on our Intercity trains…then we have to turn to our domestic reserves. And our domestic reserves are the Hungarian [slur used in regards to Roma],” claimed Janos Lazar, one of the ministers in Orban’s government, in January.
Сontroversially, Orban’s party sign historically relied on Roma population, although it never considered their rights as a priority.
“Orban relies a lot on Roma. There is a sort of consent amongst analysts was that Orban successfully convinced in general poor people including Roma in the countryside that it’s him who gave them work and some stability,” explained István Hegedűs, a former Fidesz perty member and a chairman of NGO ‘Hungarian Europe Society.’
Even just days before the elections, people linked to the Fidesz party were widely seen distributing more than 11 tons of food to Roma communities in electoral districts where the party is seeking support. In this election, The New York Times reported, Roma voters could be the ones who determine which political force comes out on top.
“My grandparents always watch TV2 which is owned by the Fidesz party and they believe in it. They can’t imagine that that this election will be not won by the Fidesz party. It’s like a parallel universe they live in. And you cannot convince them that it is not the reality,” said Norbert.
If being a Roma is hard, being a Roma queer like Norbert hits on the whole different level.
Today he confidently wears long pink nail polish, seeing it as gender-neutral, and has dyed his hair pink, freely expressing his identity. Yet he is often forced to avoid using public transport, as he does not feel entirely safe. Besides, Norbert even had to stop organizing school lessons about Roma history as a community activist, because organizations could have been banned from teaching children under so-called ‘LGBTQ+ propaganda’ laws.
“In Hungary, if you are a Roma person, you are too much for the community. If you are a queer person, you are too much. If you are a Roma queer person, you don’t even exist [you are invisible for people],” said Norbert.
In 2021, Orbán’s government introduced a law banning the dissemination of any LGBTQ-related content to minors. The restrictions apply to schools, media, advertising, and more. Hungary became the first country in the European Union to adopt a law resembling similar legislation in Russia.
Last year, LGBTQ+ events were also restricted by Fidesz, including a Pride March. Around 200,000 Hungarians took to the streets in protest, making it one of the largest demonstrations in the country’s recent history.
“I really love daydreaming [about rapid improvement of human rights if TISZA wins]... But I don’t expect that everything will be changed if it wins this election,” said Norbert.
Although Péter Magyar proposes systemic reforms in his program, he can’t be considered as a person who will shift the country’s course in 180 degrees. As a former member of Fidesz, who left the party in 2024, his political ideas were shaped by the ideology of Orban’s party and conservatism.
Here’s where the Ukraine implications come in: Magyar’s program suggests closer cooperation with the EU, as relations between Budapest and Brussels became especially strained amid constant vetos and Hungary-Russia links.
TISZA chose five candidates among Roma people for elections this year. However, Norbert thinks it is still not enough for equal representation and inclusion. Apart from that, it is believed that Magyars’ program does not offer substantial reforms for Roma people to get out of the political isolation.
“Every 10th person in Hungary is Roma [according to unofficial estimates]. The year representation in the number even in the numbers would be at least 11 or 12 Roma people selected. It is five, which is fine, but we have to achieve better,” he said.
But like many other Hungarians Norbert will vote for TISZA to have at least some chance of rewriting his country’s future. Because Orbán’s regime is unlikely to promise him any improvement in his social conditions.
In the evening he will meet with friends to wait for the preliminary election results. And if the opposition does win, he will celebrate.
“I just want to experience a new regime. This is something that would be enough for me,” said Norbert with a small, almost unnoticeable exhale.
Editor’s Note:
We can’t afford to miss events that impact Ukraine and the course of the war.
Our reporter is currently on the ground in Hungary, covering the elections.
If you’d like to support our on-the-ground reporting and read all our stories, consider subscribing.
Today, Tim Mak, Mariana Lastovyria and Anne Applebaum will host a Substack livestream, where they’ll walk you through the main candidates, unpack our latest reporting, and outline what the results could mean for Ukraine.
Set your alarms and join our livestream at 1:30pm Pacific, 4:30pm Eastern, 9:30pm London, 10:30pm Budapest, 11:30pm Kyiv time.
On your Substack app or www.counteroffensive.news!
NEWS OF THE DAY:
By Oleksandra Khelemendyk
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
RUSSIA BREAKS EASTER TRUCE: As of 7 a.m., April 12, Russia has breached the Easter ceasefire 2,299 times, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said.
Russia announced the truce itself at 4 p.m., April 11, and also accused Ukraine of injuring people in drone attacks on the border regions of Kursk and Belgorod, as well as the occupied part of the southern Kherson region.
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA EXCHANGED 182 PRISONERS: Yesterday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 servicemen and 7 civilians each. According to Zelenskyy, most of the Ukrainians involved in the swap have been held in captivity since 2022.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that the prisoner swap was mediated by the United Arab Emirates. The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, expects another exchange next week.
UKRAINIAN POWS SHOT: The DeepState OSINT project shared a video of 4 Ukrainian POWs being shot by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region. Most likely, the video was filmed on April 11.
On the same day, a group of wounded Ukrainian soldiers was targeted by Russian FPV drones near the town of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region, as they were trying to evacuate.
Apart from the Easter truce, such actions blatantly breach international humanitarian law. The prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into both crimes.
UKRAINE’S EXPERTISE COULD HELP OPEN STRAIT OF HORMUZ: Britain’s armed services minister, Al Carns, said that Ukraine’s experience on the battlefield, including its drone interception capabilities, might be useful for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
This week, Ukraine participated in consultations on safeguarding navigation in the Strait. Earlier, it deployed more than 200 experts to down Iranian Shahed drones in the Middle East. In March, it signed a series of 10-year defense cooperation agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, while preparing a similar deal with the U.A.E.
CAT OF CONFLICT:
Sasha saw this cat in the bomb shelter where she recently went to sit out a morning missile attack on Kyiv.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Mariana
I, too, look forward to the election results (and The Counteroffensive livestream) later today. True, a hoped for Tisza victory would not suddenly alter everything.
But it would offer hope for change for the many who sorely seek it: the Hungarian people (including long suffering minorities) who have endured 16 years of Orban rule; the peoples of the EU (and Ukraine) who have seen Orban's government frustrate the exercise of European democracy & security; other nations around the world (including the US and Germany) who struggle with authoritarian movements and need, I think, the inspiration of Hungary's people "voting their way out of it". May it be so.
Outstanding update. The whole world is awaiting Hungary's election results !